A financial analytics company stores daily risk assessment datasets in a single Amazon S3 … — AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate

A financial analytics company stores daily risk assessment datasets in a single Amazon S3 bucket. The datasets consist of two distinct file types:

* Market Simulation Results: Average file size of $200\text{ MB}$ . These files are actively analyzed for $15\text{ days}$ after creation. Afterwards, they are rarely accessed but must be retained for $7\text{ years}$ for compliance audits. Audit requests require a retrieval time of less than $5\text{ minutes}$ .
* Execution Log Fragments: Average file size of $15\text{ KB}$ . These files are used for debugging during the first $10\text{ days}$ and are never accessed afterwards. They can be safely deleted after $10\text{ days}$ .

Which TWO actions should a Solutions Architect take to configure a lifecycle policy that minimizes storage and retrieval costs?

Configure a lifecycle rule to transition Market Simulation Results to Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval after $15\text{ days}$ .Answer
Configure a lifecycle rule to delete Execution Log Fragments after $10\text{ days}$ without transitioning them to another storage class.Answer
C
Configure a lifecycle rule to transition the Execution Log Fragments to Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA) after $3\text{ days}$ and delete them after $10\text{ days}$ .
D
Configure a lifecycle rule to transition the Market Simulation Results to Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after $15\text{ days}$ and use standard retrieval for audit requests.
E
Configure a lifecycle rule to transition the Execution Log Fragments to Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval after $5\text{ days}$ and delete them after $10\text{ days}$ .

Answer

The correct configuration is to transition the Market Simulation Results to Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval after 15 days, and to delete the Execution Log Fragments after 10 days without transitioning them to another storage class.

Transitioning the Market Simulation Results to Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval after

15\text{ days}

is correct because the files are large (

200\text{ MB}

, avoiding minimum size charges), rarely accessed after

15\text{ days}

, kept for

7\text{ years}

, and require retrieval in under

5\text{ minutes}

(which S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval satisfies with millisecond access). Deleting the Execution Log Fragments after

10\text{ days}

without transitioning them is correct because the files are very small (

15\text{ KB}

) and short-lived (

10\text{ days}

). Transitioning them to S3 Standard-IA or S3 Glacier storage tiers would incur a minimum

128\text{ KB}

billing size penalty and early deletion fees for violating the minimum storage duration rules.

Step-by-Step Solution

Evaluate the storage requirements and retrieval times for the Market Simulation Results.

The files are large (

200\text{ MB}

), accessed frequently for

15\text{ days}

, then rarely accessed, but must be retrieved in less than

5\text{ minutes}

for audit purposes over a

7\text{-year}

period.

This establishes the constraints needed to choose a storage tier that supports rapid retrieval (under

5\text{ minutes}

) and is cost-effective for long-term archival of large files.

Select the optimal storage class for the Market Simulation Results.

Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is selected because it offers millisecond retrieval (meeting the

< 5\text{-minute}

requirement) and has the lowest storage cost for rarely accessed data with instant retrieval requirements.

S3 Standard and S3 Standard-IA have higher storage costs, while S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval standard retrieval (

3\text{ to }5\text{ hours}

) is too slow.

Evaluate the storage requirements and lifecycle constraints for the Execution Log Fragments.

The files are very small (

15\text{ KB}

), accessed for debugging for

10\text{ days}

, and then deleted.

This establishes the file size and retention constraints to check against S3 storage class billing rules.

Determine the cost impact of transitioning the Execution Log Fragments to other storage classes.

Transitioning the

15\text{ KB}

files to S3 Standard-IA or S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval would trigger minimum billing size charges of

128\text{ KB}

per file and early deletion charges (since the files are deleted on day

10

, violating the

30\text{-day}

90\text{-day}

minimum storage durations).

This demonstrates that leaving the small files in S3 Standard and expiring them after

10\text{ days}

is the most cost-optimized choice.

Key Concept

S3 Lifecycle Policy Cost Optimization and Storage Class Constraints

Question

Answer

Step-by-Step Solution

Key Concept

Common Mistakes

Topics